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Sunday, February 28, 2016

Trumpification - 21st Century Political Satire

Or is The
Donald pulling off an incredibly brilliant feat of political satire designed to
expose the darker side of human nature simmering beneath the Republican Party.

The idea was
first posed to me last month by a college freshman majoring in political
science and philosophy at CU-Boulder. When I asked what he thought of Trump and
the GOP primary, his immediate reaction was, “I think he’s a satirist. I have
to believe that he is rattling off all this crazy stuff about immigration just
to mess with people.” Granted, many critics would certainly hope so. And,
knowing Trump’s ego and flair for the dramatic, it wouldn’t be all that far-fetched.
It may even explain why Trump first came out as a birther regarding Obama’s
citizenship. If it
were truly a political sting, it would explain why someone like Trump would
have waded into that messy conspiracy theory in the first place. Trump is “the
best builder,” after all. And, with his similar attacks on Ted Cruz’s citizen status, this ruse would be
the construction of the grandest façade in a world drowning in political
chicanery.

Could it be
that Donald Trump is out-Colbert-ing Stephen Colbert and forcing the Grand Old Party to
confront the more sinister side of its politics, cultivated by Sean Hannity and
Roger Aisles for the past decade? Despite the intriguing possibilities, I
hadn’t seriously entertained the idea, even as Trump’s staying power became
evident and his poll resilience continued to mystify political pundits.
However, in January Denver radio host and writer Ross Kaminsky made his predictions for 2016, and I had to seriously re-consider
the possibility that “Donald Trump drops
out of the presidential race and says that his whole campaign was a bet with
Michael Bloomberg about whether Trump could really fool gullible Republicans
into thinking he had suddenly become a conservative. Kaminsky posited the
possibility that a man like Trump who trades in “barbs and insults” could actually
become the standard bearer for the GOP. Such a bait and switch would be quite a
prize for a liberal like Bloomberg. And, with recent news of Bloomberg’s interest in third-party
run for the
Presidency, the satire conspiracy becomes even richer.

Certainly, the
idea of a Trump spoof has not escaped the speculation of many pundits and campaign
watchers. The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher has been scrutinizing the news of
the Trump phenomenon for months now, and he is considering the possibility that
Donald Trump is actually a spy or a plant for the Democrats. It’s not such an
outrageous idea, considering the history between Donald Trump and the Clintons.
Of particular interest is the investigative work of reporter Noah Rathman who has noticed a
potential pattern of
times that Trump’s actions have conveniently taken media attention off of Hillary
when she was under scrutiny by media and GOP pundits. Truly, the GOP leadership
and moderate Republicans across the country have watched, bewildered, as Trump
has grabbed control of the headlines, making a mockery of many debates and
distracting the press and the other candidates from hitting at Hillary’s
record. With news that Donald Trump spoke at length with
Bill Clinton prior
to launching his campaign, the idea of a faux campaign seems plausible. More
than likely, it was an attempt by the Clinton’s to sabotage the GOP primaries –
an action that may actually work against them.

Undoubtedly,
Donald Trump has an enormous ego and inflated sense of self-worth. And,
becoming president would certainly feed that need. Yet, an even greater
accomplishment might be to secure the GOP nomination only to turn around and
intentionally derail an entire political party. Even if he fails to succeed
through the early primaries and caucuses, he could save face by claiming he
never wanted to be President, and he would have done lasting damage to the GOP
while once again elevating his own persona. Certainly, the argument that Trump
never was a true Republican or conservative was bolstered in last month’s
National Review which seeks to expose the Donald Trump farce in a series of
commentary on Trump’s lack of conservative
credentials. While
Trump dismissed the article with his usual snide shrug, he may secretly be
chuckling inside about just how right they are. Undoubtedly, Trump is a bit of
a rogue candidate for the GOP, as he has proudly held many positions that run counter to
Republican and conservative ideals. And, his popularity has consequently exposed uncomfortable
splits in a Republican party with significant ideological extremes. Whether he
intended to or not, Trump’s statements and popularity have undoubtedly
satirized the establishment of the Republican Party.

If Donald
Trump – a businessman with no political background or governing credentials – were
to become President it would be a historic coup in contemporary American politics.
If he were to eventually come out as a satirist, having mocked the Republican
Party into an egregious mistake, it might be one of the single greatest feats
of political gamesmanship the contemporary world has ever seen. Once Trump
passed a seemingly unfathomable line with his assertion that “I could shoot
somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” it seemed the last hope for a dignified
country that he had to be kidding. For many, Trump as satirist is the only
possible answer. He has to be kidding because the alternative – that he really
believes what he says and is still so popular – is just too difficult to
accept. However, others speculate that he is not actually satirizing the GOP
and the political process as much as he is simply pulling off the greatest
stunt in political media history. According to a report in Politico, Trump’s campaign is actually a spoof,
or a fraud that he
dreamed up years ago. The goal was to simply upset the process and prove he
could successfully market himself into taking over a political party and even
winning the Presidential nomination, if not the White House. To this point,
he’s been proved right, as the media has more than happily contributed to the
hype, and the GOP establishment has been helpless to stop it.

People on
both sides of the political aisles are desperately hoping that Trump’s
popularity and apparent staying power in the Republican primaries is merely an
aberration that will quickly evaporate once actual votes go to the polls. And,
if he truly is playing us all, columnist Andy Ostroy offered ideas about what Trump is really up to. Following his withdrawal from the
race, Trump would explain: I pulled off the greatest
social experiment in American history. In the end, it wasn't Donald Trump whose
behavior was shameful, it was yours. You've got a lot to work on, America. And you
can thank Trump for exposing it." Were Trump to come out with
such a statement, it would be a legendary moment in American politics. But
considering the extremes to which he’s gone already, it may be more legendary
for such a man to actually secure a major party nomination. And, many suspect
that should Trump actually begin to fade
in the polls, or
simply not continue to win primaries or caucuses and fail to secure the
nomination, Trump may at that point claim that he never wanted the job in the
first place.

So, Trump
may very well be kidding. Or he may not. As the country moves on from Iowa, New
Hampshire, and South Caroline toward Super Tuesday and beyond, it appears
anything can happen, and the pundits have practically given up trying to
predict it. And,
while it’s doubtful that Donald Trump is intentionally spoofing the GOP in
order to defeat it, it was also doubtful that he ever had a chance in the first
place. Truly, Donald Trump’s bombastic personality and extreme statements have
shocked a nation and have in many ways already made a mockery of the country’s
politics and electoral process. Thus, in moving from a controversial but
entertaining reality TV show star to a serious candidate, Donald Trump may be a
brilliant satirist or a dangerous demagogue.

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About Me

Michael P. Mazenko is a school administrator and an AP English teacher in suburban Colorado. Originally from Illinois, he completed his BS in Secondary Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received an MA in English Language and Literature from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
After earning his teaching degree in 1992, Michael traveled abroad and taught English in Taiwan for five years. He taught middle school English in the city of Chicago and high school English in Edwardsville Illinois before moving to Colorado in 2003. Michael has written commentary for the Denver Post for the past five years, serving as a Colorado Voices columnist in 2009.